Rights of tenants, homeless on Housing Committee agenda

Session 1 commences at 12:30 p.m. in Committee Room 3, where the Committee will engage in pre-legislative scrutiny of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2018.

The bill seeks to boost legal protections for tenants, boost transparency in rental prices, and strengthen the investigative and enforcement powers of the Residential Tenancies Board. Representatives from the RTB – which oversees the rental sector and mediates in disputes between landlords and tenants – are addressing the Committee during this session.

Next in Committee Room 4 at 2 p.m., the Committee is exploring how the legal right to housing is defined and observed internationally. The scheduled witnesses are:

• Leilani Farha, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, and
• Sinead Kerin, a solicitor for Mercy Law Resource Centre, a Dublin charity that provides legal support to the homeless.

Committee proceedings can be viewed live from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m here.

And from 2 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. here.

Committee proceedings also can be viewed live on Android and Apple devices using the Houses of the Oireachtas app.